THE economy in Wales could suffer long-term damage due to the coronavirus pandemic, the First Minister has said.

Mark Drakeford said Wales is in the "calm before the storm" as it nears the end of its 17-day firebreak and England enters a month-long lockdown.

He said the Welsh Government introduced its own measures through the Economic Resilience Fund to plug gaps in funding from Westminster and help sustain jobs, but he fears the consequences if support ends.

"The various measures the UK Government has put in place have helped to sustain jobs and livelihoods here in Wales," Mr Drakeford said.

"As someone who believes Wales is better off in the UK that's a very important thing to be able to demonstrate.

"We used our own Economic Resilience Fund to try to plug some of the gaps that inevitably emerged and we used it especially to try to sustain those more vulnerable parts of the economy.

"The fear is of a blunt end to the support that has come from the UK Government and the fact the support doesn't have a sectoral focus in some very important areas that matter a lot to us, such as steel and aerospace."

Mr Drakeford, who was addressing a Resolution Foundation event about the Welsh economy, said much of the UK Government support focused on sustaining the present, rather than also looking to the future.

"This is a harsh criticism, but the focus of the help is very much on sustaining what we've got rather than trying to invest in what we will need beyond coronavirus," he said.

"There's very little on training, very little on skills, and again we are trying to mobilise the funds we have, including the remaining European funding we have, to try to match some of those missing gaps.

"We are trying to shape the post-coronavirus future here in Wales and, desperately difficult as coronavirus has been, to look for some of those opportunities."

Mr Drakeford said it was never a question of health versus wealth and described the possibility of future lockdowns or firebreaks as an "open question".

"Our path through to Christmas is very important economically. We want our retail and hospitality sectors to be able to trade all the way through to Christmas," he said.

"Whether we will need to go through this again the other side of that is such an open question.

"So much will change between now and then and we simply don't know about today."

A new report by the Resolution Foundation said Wales's strong job creation had not been reflected in pay packets, leaving the country struggling to reduce its living standards gap with the rest of the UK.

The report - From Locking Down to Levelling Up - argues that closing the gap should be a priority for policymakers in Cardiff and London.

Charlie McCurdy, researcher at the Resolution Foundation, said: "The progress Wales has made in closing employment gaps is in contrast to stubbornly high living standards gap with the rest of the UK.

"Wales faces a more immediate challenge in tackling fast-rising unemployment. With a large concentration of young workers in low-paying sectors like hospitality, this pandemic will leave a lasting mark on the Welsh labour market."